Israel's Election 99

The Blond Leads the 'Politically' Blind?

The latest challenge to Israel's traditional male dominated political establishment comes from a blond former model who is campaigning for social reforms.

	Jerusalem: Pnina Rosenblum, a model turned millionaire cosmetics tycoon, believes that her Tnufa women's rights and social reform party will attract enough support in general elections on May 17 to give her several seats in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, and a ministerial post in the next government.  The party of 44 year old blond Ms Rosenblum is contesting the election on a social reform ticket: equal pay for women and men in the public sector, maximum sentences for perpetrators of domestic violence, and better benefits for pensioners and demobilised soldiers as well as improvements in education and tax breaks for childcare. Already the Jerusalem post nicknamed her the Blond Messiah; Ms Rosenblum has won the support of the few women in Knesset.  The Post's Ruthie Blum noted earlier last year, right after Rosenblum first announced her Knesset candidacy, the beauty-care entrepreneur "is a shining example of capitalism 'on the ground.' Her meteoric rise - which has provided employment for many people, as well as products desirable and affordable to many other people - would have made Adam Smith reassured and Milton Friedman proud." Ms Rosenblum who has been unable to have children of her own, also advocates universal access to fertility treatment and wants brothels legalised under government supervision to reduce the health risks of illicit sex. She is no ordinary campaigner for women's rights and presenting Israel's feminists with a real challenge. The platinum blonde is said to have had her military service cut short because she distracted male soldiers everywhere she went. As a leading international model in the 1970s, she was befriended by Hugh Heftier, the Playboy entrepreneur, was painted by Salvador Dally and became known as "the breasts of the nation".  After returning to Israel, she wrote a regular magazine column in which she described starting her company, Pnina Rosenblum Cosmetics, with a $20,000 loan; her marriage to a taxi driver 10 years younger than her in a nationally televised ceremony attended by 1,200 guests; and her adoption of two children.   "They don't take me seriously in a political way because I'm a woman and because of the way I look," she said. "Women are simply not treated as equals in Israel's chauvinist society." The politicians may soon find themselves taking Rosenblum very seriously.  Despite her success as model for a free-market enterprise, Ms Rosenblum also has a clear social conscience. She serves as chairman of the Association of Friends of Ilan, the foundation for handicapped children, and her electoral platform stresses socio-economic issues. Rosenblum has also made her views on peace and security matters crystal clear. Interviewed earlier this year by the Post, she said she voted for Binyamin Netanyahu in 1996 and generally backs his policy of continuing the Oslo process on the basis of reciprocity. Asked about Har Homa (the settlement in east Jerusalem which triggered a wide protest and froze the peace process for months), she responded: "There was nothing about Har Homa in the Oslo Accord, and besides, to make true peace, both sides have to compromise.  The 120 members of the Knesset will be elected by proportional representation in a separate vote, which favours smaller parties such as Rosenblum's. An opinion poll last week showed that 7% intend to vote for her party - enough to secure eight seats. Ms Rosenblum hopes to become welfare minister. Her policies, she says, reflect the poverty of her early life in a one-room shack in one of Israel's poorest neighbourhoods. Her father deserted the family soon after she was born and her younger sister was sent to an orphanage. "I've had to fight for everything all my life," she said. They know I never took anything from anybody and that I had to do everything myself."  Israeli media has so far largely treated her candidacy as a joke. For example they pounced on her by claiming she was putting forth a Knesset list that included her bank manager, and her child's kindergarten teacher and babysitter. She quickly clarified that the list of friends and supporters was not of proposed Knesset candidates, but of her party's "founders," submitted as a formality to comply with electoral laws. Even if it wasn't though, Rosenblum's list was hardly less ludicrous than half the Knesset candidates submitted in the past by such prior one-man-party leaders as Rafael Titan and Rehavam Ze'evi. Eager to bolster their appeal, Israel's established political parties, which can count only nine female Knesset members between them, have asked Ms Rosenblum to join them. She says she has no wish to be tainted by any association with career politicians. "The people are fed up with the big parties. They want a change," she said." Mainstream politicians, she believes, pay scant attention to the issues that touch people's daily lives. "Why are there more than 700,000 people living below the poverty line? Why are there more than 40 children in a school classroom? The time has come to deal with some of the real issues in Israeli society," she said.  Among these is what Rosenblum regards as a deep-rooted sexism and a general anti women attitude in Israeli politics. This advocate of women's rights frequently flashes a stunning pair of legs, showing how Ms Rosenblum takes a middle-of-the-road view of such issues like the war of the sexes or the religious-secular conflict. She supported the closing of Jerusalem's Bar-Ilan Street on Shabbat, arguing "When 90% of the people who live on the street are religious, there is no reason to keep it open on Shabbat. We have to keep Jewish traditions, and respect the religious - we can't be 'anti' on everything; there has to be a compromise. But when the religious go too far, we shouldn't accept that, either.' " In other words, Ms Rosenblum is very much the kind of "centrist" candidate that the pundits are calling Mr Shahak, who, despite his impressive military record, has yet to pronounce policy positions on any issue. The big difference between these two "political messiahs" then, is that so far it is Rosenblum who is not just relying on her good looks. The Israeli women's movement, however, is perplexed by the Rosenblum phenomenon. Feminists have long decried her pin-up career and dedication to cosmetics, but find it hard to argue with her policies. Women politicians point out that they have been pursuing a similar agenda for years. "If they had done it already, I wouldn't have to go into politics," Rosenblum retorted. "The truth is, they have no power. If I had been in the Knesset, I would have had the politicians twisted round my little finger by now."
	Sources: Wires, The Jerusalem Post, The Sunday Times
	See also Netanyahu's main challengers